She said the education ministry will always strive to ensure the number of teachers is increased based on the needs of schools after the issue of teacher shortage was also identified as the cause of increased workload for existing teachers.

“We have received the number of new teacher positions from the education services commission (SPP) and they will report for duty early next year.

“The most significant shortage of teachers is for subjects like Bahasa Melayu, English, Islamic Studies and Design and Technology,” she said during the question and answer session at the Dewan Rakyat.

She was replying to a supplementary question from Dr Taufiq Johari (PH-Sungai Petani) as to whether the issue of teacher shortage, including the fact that many teachers are retiring earlier, resulted in an increased workload for existing teachers.

In reply to a supplementary question from Ahmad Marzuk Shaary (PN-Pengkalan Chepa) regarding the welfare and infrastructure facilities for teachers in rural areas in view of the case of a school headmaster in Sabah having to live in the school storeroom, Lim said the ministry is taking action.

“Follow-up action is being carried out to identify the cause of the incident and we will manage every issue as best as possible,” she said.

Meanwhile, during the same session, Lim said her ministry also welcomed the Court of Appeal’s ruling that the use of Mandarin and Tamil languages as the medium of instruction for teaching in those schools was constitutional.

The three-man panel, headed by Justice Supang Lian, unanimously delivered the decision after dismissing the appeal brought by four NGOs, namely the Islamic Education Development Council (Mappim), the Confederation of Malaysian Writers Association (Gapena), Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) and Ikatan Guru-Guru Muslim Malaysia (I-Guru).